Five Reasons You Need a Cyber Liability Policy

The hacking threat is growing with each passing year. There are crooks out to steal data from companies, sometimes to turn around and sell personally identifiable information or credit card numbers to identity thieves and scammers.

Other cyber criminals are just out to create mayhem, shutting down websites and creating denial-of-service attacks that grind business operations to a halt.

The problem for your business is that if hackers walk away with your employees’ social security numbers, they can do serious damage to their credit lines – and in some cases even sell their identities.

The likelihood of any of the above scenarios affecting your company is growing year by year.

In any of the above cases, cyber liability insurance would pay for the costs of responding to an attack. And while you might think that insurance that protects you in case of a cyber attack is for only large companies, in recent years hackers have started targeting smaller companies in greater numbers than large ones.

If you haven’t thought about buying a policy, here are some reasons you should:

It’s affordable – Premiums for most small companies are usually $1,000 to $2,000, depending on your exposure. You can get coverage as high as $30 million and deductibles as low as $10,000, depending on your needs and what you’re willing to pay. Cyber liability insurance is still fairly new, and that means policies will vary from one to the other. In some cases you can even negotiate some parts of the coverage.

Broad coverage – Most policies will pay for business interruption, the cost of notifying customers of a breach, and even the expense of hiring a public relations firm to repair any damage done to your image as a result of a cyber attack. Policies will also cover any penalties you may incur from government agencies. Having such broad coverage will help you weather the storm and keep your business viable. Business interruption coverage can be especially important for a small business. That’s because they are typically not as diversified as larger companies and lack the same financial resources.

You likely don’t have a risk manager on staff – While most big companies have a department dedicated to reducing risks, most small and mid-sized firms don’t have that same luxury. If you are buying a cyber liability policy, you can sometimes receive assistance like analysis of your firewalls as well as making sure you have social media policies in place to reduce the chances of being hacked. Your insurer may be willing to help with these areas because the better protected you are, the less likely you are to have a breach that could result in a claim.

Outsourcing data hosting won’t save you – Even if you don’t host your data yourself, you’re still responsible for that data. So even if you are using a cloud storage solution for your data, you need to read the fine print of your contracts. The problem is that you can’t control how a cloud provider handles your data, but an insurance policy can protect you if your cloud provider errs.

Your business liability policy won’t cover you – Typically, a general liability policy specifically excludes losses incurred via the Internet. In other words, the cyber liability policy gives you protection you won’t have in other policies.

Make sure your cyber policy covers laptops and mobile devices as well, to give yourself coverage in as many situations as you can. Finally, we can help. You can work with us to integrate cyber liability with your general policy and employment liability policy. Talk to us and we can help you achieve seamless coverage.